Ianis, suffocated by Hagi: how a parent, “blinded” by subjectivism, ended up tarnishing the image of his boy

More than once it has been said that, in Romania, at the level of youth sports, parents do a great harm to the little ones. It is enough to go to a junior match, regardless of whether the sport is football, handball or basketball, to convince yourself of this!

The verbal aggression of some parents on the sidelines, either towards the coach, towards the opponents, or with instructions given to their own child, creates a toxic environment. And this is because the desperate and exasperated parent is guided by the sick mentality, according to which he must put his child in front, promote him. At any cost! And how can we claim that the common man has a healthy mind, if the great Gheorghe Hagi himself (59 years old), a standard of Romanian sport, a living legend of football, does exactly the same thing with his boy, Ianis? Not from today, from yesterday, but for years!

Now, after the return of the national team from Spain, the Lighthouse manager created another case “Ianis Hagi“. One more! Because he had an intervention on Digi Sport in which he complained that his boy did not start, neither with Northern Ireland (1-1) nor with Colombia (2-3). Attention: this exit of Hagi comes under the conditions in which his son is not even a starter in the club team! In 2024, the 25-year-old midfielder was in the Alaves team in 11 games in the Spanish championship. Seven times remained “SOLDERING” of the bench, and in the four meetings in which he was sent on the field, he played only a few minutes, as can be seen below:

*February 3, Alaves – Barcelona (1-3) – 13 minutes

* February 10, Alaves – Villarrreal (1-1) – 4 minutes

*March 4, Osasuna – Alaves (1-0) – 4 minutes

* March 16, Athletic Bilbao – Alaves (2-0) – 32 minutes

Ianis’ achievements in these games? Zero! At Alaves, he has zero goals in the league, but managed a decisive assist, indeed, five months ago, on October 29, 2023, in a defeat to Atletico Madrid (1-2). His tally also includes two goals for Alaves, but in the Spanish Cup. With Deportivo Murcia, a side from the regional leagues, in a 10-0 win.

And yet Hagi insisted, in his tirade at Digi Sport, that it doesn’t matter that his boy is not a starter at Alaves. In his view, in this month’s friendlies, an injustice was done by not including Ianis in the starting formula.

“Ianis was the only one who did not play as a starter! If I am disturbed? Not disturbed, but surprised. Of the players who played less with Northern Ireland, he was the only one who did not start with Colombia. This is also a topic to reflect on. What does it matter if he plays less in the club team? Less means what happened in the last month. Attention: this is after an injury that kept him sidelined for a year, but this matter is not taken into account“, Hagi began his indirect attack on the selector Edward Iordănescu (45 years old).

Furthermore, Hagi was indignant that, at one point, there was the question of his son not being in the squad for Euro 2024, given that he gets few minutes at Alaves, after Rangers loaned him to Spain because he no longer enter the coach’s plans.

“Ianis was the most important player (no – for the national team) in October, November, December. It was decisive, and suddenly a question arises (no – about his summoning)… I don’t know what the point was. Ianis is decisive in the national team, we can’t leave this out, even if he has been playing less in the last two months. Even if some people don’t like it, the statistics say that, from 2021, Ianis and Man are the decisive players of the national team. If this question (no – about the inclusion of Ianis Hagi in the squad for Euro 2024) is asked of one of the decisive players, do you realize what we have to do with the others? If the best are asked this question, what do we do with the rest? Ianis entered with Northern Ireland and jumped the whole stadium! In Madrid, with Colombia, he entered and the whole stadium started cheering. I see it is appreciated. There is a small part that does not appreciate him, but I say that he is an appreciated player“, concluded Hagi.

Ianis Hagi really deserves his place in the national team, if we go strictly by his numbers under the tricolor

Image spoiled by a subjective father

Leaving aside the fact that Gheorghe Hagi implies that the atmosphere of the stadium and the volume of applause should be among the criteria for choosing the national team’s holders, it is worth taking a look at the statistics that the former great international also referred to.

In this chapter, Ianis has really good numbers: 33 selections, 5 goals and 4 assists in 1,608 minutes collected for the first national team, starting in 2018. The problem is that other Romanian internationals have similar numbers, now called up for the double with Ireland North and Columbia. We are talking about players with Ianis Hagi’s profile, as can be seen below:

*Alexandru Cicâldău (26 years old) – 36 caps, 4 goals, 1 assist

*Valentin Mihăilă (24 years old) – 19 caps, 4 goals

*Olimpiu Moruțan (24 years old) – 15 caps, 1 goal, 4 assists

Mentioning these data is necessary because, although there were matches in which these boys either did not play or were left out of the team, their parents never made the rounds of television, as happens, periodically, with Ianis Hagi and his father. And this situation did a great disservice to the local from Alaves! Because, despite a satisfactory record with the national team, which justifies his presence among the tricolors, Ianis chose this image of “father’s boy“. Of the player who is summoned because he screams Gheorghe Hagi on TV.

Cosmin Contra, among the victims of an ugly situation, when he was Romania’s national team

The history of a case worthy of a planetary plot

Hagi’s statements after the friendly with Colombia are really mild, in addition to what the manager of Farul has done over the years in the name of his son’s promotion. Basically, if we look at the episodes below, we come to the conclusion that, in Hagi’s view, there was a planetary plot against Ianis.

*April 2015, after Ianis wore the suit of the U17 selector – “When Ianis left with U17, he said something to me that I remained a mask. At the airport, Mr. Kovacs (no – Zoltan Kovacs, the U17 coach at the time) called him and said: “This is the suit, take it to Romania”. I asked him how he accepted such a thing and he said that Mister told him so. You realize what humiliation he was subjected to! If you think that there is greater humiliation… I didn’t educate my child even to pick up my suit, briefcase”.

*September 2016, after Ianis missed the call-up to the national team – “Not that he’s my boy, but I can’t keep quiet anymore! Ianis was not promoted to the national team even today. A footballer who played 30 matches in the first league in the team that scored the most goals (no – Viitorul). They didn’t even promote him to U-19, anywhere! Fiorentina bought him at 15 and a half years old and he was not promoted at all! Do you think it’s normal? Come on, stop joking!”.

*February 2018, after Viitorul took Ianis from Fiorentina, where he was not playing – “Fiorentina didn’t give him a chance to play. He disappeared from the market for a year and a half, he didn’t play anymore. They lied to me and Ianis to my face. A big manager said Ianis could be compared to Totti, then fined him for saying he was disappointed not to be playing. The sporting director does and undoes everything at Fiorentina. It’s worse than in Romania at the time of the generals, when we played at Steaua! You rejected Ianis. You didn’t put him in because he’s Romanian! He was Romanian and you had to hide him (no – referral to Fiorentina officials). You can’t hide it now, because that’s why I bought it, so it can go out on the market again. Everyone in Firenze wanted to see Ianis. Pantaleo (no – Pantaleo Corvino, Fiorentina sports director), I greet you from Romania, but you have lost a great player! All respect to Pioli (no – Stefano Pioli, Fiorentina coach at the time), but don’t say that Ianis is in a hurry. I remind Pioli that Ianis played in Division A 30 matches, was the captain of our team and was in the top 100 players in the world. If he didn’t know, Hagi from Romania tells him”.

*September 2019, after the then selector, Cosmin Contra, played with Alex Maxim only in the match against Spain (1-2) and then with Gicu Grozav in this position, in the match against Malta (1-0) in the Euro 2020 preliminaries Ianis Hagi got the shirt with number 11 on the back, in those two games – “Ianis identified himself with number 10 in the club team. In Romania, U21 contributed to the highest performance in recent years (no – the semi-final reached by the team prepared by Mirel Rădoi). Who was the number 10 at Euro U21? (no – Ianis Hagi was the bane of youth). If we demolish everything we build, then everything falls! I think it is not good for Romanian football. We want to reach, again, at the high level, to have a real, strong, big number 10, who wears the national team shirt and who wears the shirt always, not to be a reserve (no – Ianis Hagi started on the reserve bench in the match with Spain, being used from the 63rd minute). That’s my biggest gripe. I saw at the convocation of the national team that the shirt with number 10 changed from one match to another. More respect for that number! We make fun of an important role in football. Until we have that number 10 there, it’s going to be hard to perform. Unfortunately, I also ended up here in Romanian football”.

*March 2023, after Edward Iordănescu left Ianis out of the squad for the first matches of the Euro 2024 preliminaries – “I, as a former player, as a football player, come and say: Ianis is not important for the selector! If it was important, surely it was at least on the foreigner’s list. When the player is told directly that it is very important, I wonder why it is missing in the first action. Simple, I realize it’s not important to the selector. He was playing really well before he got injured, and now he’s healthy and not on the roster. Ianis is on the field for 15-20 minutes (no – at Rangers), but at least he is on the field. Do they drink as much as they play? I’m telling you about one of mine, so I won’t be accused of something else. Why is he on the list and Ianis not? Ianis can do more, in ten minutes, than Pitu, thanks to his superior experience”.